End construction for rail cars



e 10, 1941. x A, N 2,245,390

END CONSTRUCTION FOR RAIL CARS Filed April 13, 1934 v 4 Sheets-Sheet l "*5 Q L I I N VEN TOR.

ALBERTGDEAN.

10, 141. DEAN 2,245,390 END CONSTRUCTION FOR HAZEL CARS Filed April 13, 1934 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 L I INVENTOR. I ALBERTGDEAN BY A - fi /W ATTORNEY.

June '10, 1941. A. e. DEAN 2,245,390

END CONSTRUCTION FOR RAIL CARS Filed April 13, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 W J 3 FTFU'WTW I N V EN TOR. .ALBERTG.DE.AN.

A TTORNE Y.

June 10, 1941; A. G..DEAN

mm coms'rnucw rou FOR RAIL CARS Filed April 13, 1954 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 II/IIIIIA IIIIIIIIIIIII/A'l INVENTOR. ALBERT CT. DEAN.

v ATTORNEY.

Patented June 19, 194i ilhii'ih'; STATES PATEN END CONSTRUCTION FOB BAIL CARS Application April 13, 1934, Serial No. 720,489

9 Claims.

The invention relates to rail cars and more particularly to that class of rail cars known as articulated cars, in which the adjacent ends of the two cars are hinged to a common truck and on a common axis.

It is a main object of my invention to lighten the body construction by decreasing the weight of the underframe through marked lightening of the usual center sill construction of the underframe and to provide an end construction which permits this by carrying some of the dead load due to the outwardly offset relation of the center and side bearing for transmission through vertical beams or the like directly into the roof framing and/or the side framing as well as distributing the starting and stopping loads similarly throughout the body framing instead of concentrating substantially all such loads in the usual heavy center sill of the underframe.

This object and other and further objects and advantages and the manner in which they are attained will become apparent from the following detailed description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows the adjacent ends of two coupled cars in a central longitudinal sectional view through the articulated joint between two cars and the supporting truck.

Figure 2 is a partial end elevation showing the end framing of a car according to the invention.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary perspective view of the lower portion of the car end as seen from the inside.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary perspective view of the lower portion of the car as seen from the outside.

Figures 5 and 6 are detail sectional views, respectively, through the joint between the longitudinal center sill of the body and the end sill extension, and through the joint between the end sill and one of the vertical beams flanking the doorway through the end wall of the car.

In the drawings, Figure l, the bolster beam of the common truck upon which the adjacent ends of two cars are articulated is designed by reference numeral it, the king pin by l l, the offset center bearings turning on the axis of the king pin by l2 and I3, respectively, and the end sill castings to which the bearings are connected by short arms projecting or offset beyond the end walls of the cars are designated, respectively, I l and l5. Since the center bearings of the sills are the only point of difierence between the two articulated car ends, the description of the other structures will be understood as applying equally to either car.

By reference to Figure 1, it will be noted that the end sill castings are subjected to several kinds of forces tending to rotate them in opposite directions about their axes, one force being that due to the dead load acting along the axis of the king pin and tending to rotate the end sills in the directions indicated by the arrow a. Due to the downwardly offset connection of the location of the connection of the bearings to the truck frame a force tending to draw the cars apart accentuates the tendency to rotate in the direction of the arrows a. On the other hand, if the cars are thrown together by collision or sudden stoppage of the leading car in some other manner, due to this same downwardly ofiset connection, a force will come in to play tending to rotate the axis of the end sills in counter direction to that indicated by the arrows a, namely in the direction indicated by arrows 1). Furthermore, a sudden stoppage of the moving truck supporting adjacent ends of two moving articulated cars, would, if the cars were not likewise stopped, due to the momentum of the cars, alone or as augmented by the momentum of cars coupled thereto at their opposite ends, cause the bearings of the adjacent ends of said moving cars to be operated on by forces tending to turn them simultaneously in like directions, one in the direction of arrow (a) and the other in the direction of arrow (b) or vice Versa depending upon the direction of movement of the cars when such truck stoppage occurs.

To distribute these turning forces over a large portion of the main framework of the car and thereby permit the lightening of the structure as a whole and particularly the underframe, by eliminating in large part the heavy center sill structures heretofore tied into the end sill and relied upon almost wholly to counteract the turning forces above referred to, according to this invention two relatively light spaced center sills i6 and H are employed, these sills extending but a relatively short distance inwardly of the end of the car underframe and tied at their inner end to the upper portions of two transverse beams l8 and 19 of a vertically deep central portion of the underframe between the car ends. A diagonal brace 2! between the top of the beam 49 to the bottom of beam l8 aids in absorbing the loads transmitted to the transverse beams by the longitudinal center sills l6 and H.

The two center sills are joined to the end sill oasting by having the inwardly extending arms 20 and 20a of said casting overlap the inner faces of the center sills, and securing these overlapped parts together by a strong riveted connection 22, shown clearly in Figure 3 and the sectional View of Figure 5. In this joint region one side of the hollow section is left open to afford access for riveting and the side walls of the sill are interbraced by a plurality of angularly arranged spacers 23 and the side wall through which the rivets extend is reinforced by a plate or plates 24.

The end sill, as I5, is a unitary casting terminating short of the sides of the car and is provided, in addition to the inwardly projecting arms 20 and 26a tying into the underframing, with vertical arms 25 arranged on opposite sides of a doorway opening in the end of the car and webs Z3 bracing said arms to the main body of the sill, and with lateral outwardly projecting side bearings 21 in addition to the center bearing l2 or 43 already referred to, and lateral and vertical extensions 28 (Fig. 2) beyond the side bearings.

The vertical arms 25, webs 25 and extensions 23 all serve as joint members to tie the sill strongly and rigidly into the front wall framing of the car and through it into the roof and side wall structures.

As clearly appears from Figs. 2, 3 and 4, the arms 25 of the sill are extended upwardly to the roof to tie into the same by rigid generally box section beams 29 of longitudinally deep section, the lower ends of which telescope over the arms 25 and are rigidly secured thereto by riveting as at 39. As shown in Figure 6, these box section beams are fabricated of a plurality of parts spot welded together in their margins, and flanges a 3! and angular gussets as 32 are provided thereon to form joint structures for securing other members of the end wall framing thereto.

As appears in Figures 2, 4 and 6, each portion of the end wall on one side of the central door opening is slightly inclined inwardly and laterally and built up into a strongly reinforced trussed structure, including the vertical beams 29, additional vertica] members 33, diagonal members 3A, horizontal members 34' and generous gussets 35, at the joints connecting the various members entering into the truss structure.

At the top the side trusses of the end wall are interconnected by a continuous curved frame member 36 interconnecting the side trusses and through which the entire end is tied to the roof structure. The side trusses are additionally interconnected at the top by a panel 31 interconnecting the beams 29, 29 flanking the sides of the doorway opening above said opening.

At the sides the end truss structures are of course tied into the side wall framing shown in side elevation in Figure 1 in any known manner, by having the longitudinal framing 38 and diagonal braces 39 of the side walls tied into the corner posts 33. The transverse members 40 of the side framing except at window openings extend through the roof region also and in the roof region, Figure l, the structure is additionally reinforced by a transverse frame member 4| directly inward of the tops of the Vertical beams 29, 29. The roof paneling as 42 is longitudinally corrugated and through its securement to the transverse framing members forms a roof structure in the nature of a plate girder able to withstand substantial compressive and tension forces.

To distribute the forces transmitted to the vertical beams 23, by the tendency of the sill to turn in its axis, the upper ends of the beams 29 are tied into the roof not only by tying them to the member 36 to which the roof paneling is in turn secured, but by additional triangular braces 43, one secured through an extensive area to the rear portion of each beam 29 and through an extensive area of the roof bridging several transverse members 40 and 4|.

The central vertical member 33 of each lateral end truss structure as well as the lower hori zontal member 34 thereof is additionally tied into the sill members through the lateral and upward extensions 28 to which they are strongly secured by means of the gussets 4-3 and rivets 44. Additional tie-in of the main vertical beam 29 with the sills is had through the riveted connection 45 between brace webs 26 and angle brackets 46 secured to the lower ends of the beams 29.

The sill is further tied into the flooring structure of the car through the rearwardly extending transverse flange 45 on the sill casting (see Fig. 3) which is notched to receive the ends of spaced floor stringers 46 (see Fig. 4) the tops of which together with the tops of center sills l6 and IT support and secure the floor plating (not shown). The ends of the stringers immediately adjacent the opposite sides of the center sills and those between the sills are all welded to a transverse plate 41, which is in turn riveted to the flange 45.

By the construction hereinbefore described, it will be seen that the end sill casting is very strongly tied into, not only the underframe, but through the vertical end Wall structure into the roof and side wall structures, and since the vertical beams tying into the roof are very rigid and the center sills are relatively flexible, the larger portion of the bending load, perhaps as high as thereof, is carried by the vertical beams tying into the roof structure. This permits a lightening of the entire framework structure of the car body, and in the construction shown substantially the entire structure outside of the end sill castings may be fabricated from hollow and box section parts, made from relatively light gauge sheet metal, and particularly high tensile stainless steel, and by reason of the general flanged construction of these members in their edges, and the use of gussets, the framework parts of the car may be readily fabricated by joining of the parts by that easiest and most economical method of joinder, namely, spot welding.

While I have herein described a specific embodiment of my invention which I have found very satisfactory in practice, it will be understood that changes and modifications in the precise structure shown and described may be made without departing from the broad spirit of the invention, and it is my desire to cover all such changes and modifications as fall within the spirit and scope of the invention in the claims appended hereto.

What I claim is:

1. In an end construction for railway cars, an end sill casting having its lateral portions terminating a substantial distance short of the car sides and having a short arm projecting outwardly and carrying the center bearing for the car, and laterally and upwardly extending vertical front wall light-weight truss structures rigidly connected to the lateral portions of the end sill and extending to the roof and side wall trusses of the car and tying into the framing of the same, to transmit a substantial portion of the eccentric loading on the end sill casting into the roof and side wall trusses.

2. In an end construction for railway cars, an end sill having a short arm projecting outwardly and carrying the center bearing for the car, an arm rigidly secured to the sill and extending inwardly and tying into light weight relatively flexible longitudinally extending underframing and another longitudinally deep arm, relatively rigid as respects said underframing, also rigidly secured to the sill and extending vertically and tying into the roof structure, whereby forces tending to rotate the end sill are distributed between the underframe and roof structures.

3. In an end construction for railway cars, an end sill casting terminating laterally short of the sides of the car and having a short arm projecting outwardly and carrying a center bearing, rigidly secured inwardly extending arms tying into light weight underframing of the car, and vertical trussing forming end frame structures rigidly tied to the side portions of the end sill on the one hand and to the roof and side framing of the car on the other hand, whereby forces tending to rotate the end sill are distributed between the under frame, side and roof structures of the car.

4. In a rail car construction, an end sill casting carrying an outwardly offset bearing, said end sill having an inward projection tying directly into light weight relatively flexible longitudinally extending underframing of the car, and vertically extending longitudinally deep arms tying directly and rigidly to vertical members,

relatively rigid as respects said underfrarning and framing the sides of a dOOr opening at the end of the car and additional vertical arms outwardly of the first named vertical arms additionally tying the sill into the vertical end framing of the car.

5. In a rail car construction having side wall and roof structures, an end sill casting carrying an outwardly offset center bearing and laterally thereof side bearings, the ends of said casting terminating a substantial distance short of the sides of the body but tying into the lightweight trussed end wall framing through upwardly and laterally projecting arms to carry the loading upon said offset bearing through the end framing into the roof and side wall structures, whereby to transmit a substantial portion of the turning movement of the sill due to the loading transmitted through said bearing into the side wall and roof structures.

6. In a rail car construction, an end sill carrying an outwardly offset bearing, a roof structure including transverse frames and sheathing constituting it in effect a plate girder arranged to take substantial longitudinal forces, an upwardly extending longitudinally deep arm rigidly secured to said sill and having its upper end secured to said roof structure through a substantially triangular brace overlapping both said arm and roof structures in substantial areas, and secured thereto in said overlapping areas.

7. In a rail car structure, an end sill carrying an outwardly oflset bearing, a roof structure arranged to take substantial longitudinal forces, a vertically extending longitudinally deep rigid beam structure rigidly secured to the sill and tying into the roof structure at its upper end, and a longitudinally extending center sill structure secured to the end sill, the relative flexibility of said vertical beam structure and said center sill structure being such as to carry the major portion of the turning moment on the end sill due to the offset bearing into the roof structure.

8. In a rail car construction, an end sill carrying an outwardly offset bearing, a roof structure adapted to take substantial compression and tension loads and a vertically extending rigid arm structure relatively deep longitudinally of the car rigidly secured to said sill and having its upper end connected to th roof structure, and a center sill structure connected to said end sill, the relative flexibility of said center sill structure and the vertical arm structure being such as to cause at least approximately 50% of the turning moment on the end sill due to the offset bearing to be transmitted to the roof structure.

9. In a rail car construction, a rigid box section central end sill portion extending between vertical door posts and carrying centrally an outwardly offset bearing, door posts rigidly secured to said rigid box section central portion and themselves formed as longitudinally deep rigid arms extending to and tied into a roof structure capable of carrying substantially tension and compression loads, a center sill structure also connected to said end sill, the relative flexibility of said center sill structure and door posts being such as to cause at least of the order of 50% of the turning moment on the end sill due to the offset bearing to be transmitted to the roof structure.

ALBERT G. DEAN. 

